OPENING OF THE FORESTRY SECTION OF THE CONGRESS 



THE opening session of the Forestry Section of the Fifth National Con- 

 'servation Congress was held at the New Willard Hotel, Washington, 

 D. C, on the morning of Monday, November 17, 1913, one day in ad- 

 vance of the Congress in order to give ample time for hearing and discussing the 

 reports. 



Mr. Henry S. Graves, chairman of the Forestry Committee, presided 

 throughout the two days' sessions. 



In opening the meeting, Mr. Graves said : "I think that any lengthy intro- 

 ductory remarks by me are unnecessary. You must all have understood the 

 reason why we have organized a special section of forestry at this convention. 

 I think that everyone who has attended the previous conservation congresses has 

 felt that the time had arrived when we should have meetings which would enable 

 the discussion, by men from different parts of the country, of specific, practical 

 problems. In forestry, at least, we have gotten beyond the stage of discussion 

 of whether it is desirable or not, and our great task now is to determine methods 

 of getting forestry into practice and that is why we are here. We are here for 

 business and we have a very full program. Therefore, I am going to push the 

 meeting as hard as I can, and hold down discussion where it seems to be extending 

 beyond the immediate subject in hand, because I think we have, if anything, more 

 than we can do. 



I want to say at the beginning that the reports of the different sub-committees 

 have been published and will be ready for distribution. I believe that there are, 

 altogether, twelve different reports. We have had a committee of some fifty 

 odd men from different parts of the country working on these reports this sum- 

 mer and fall, and I think it is a pretty good record to have gotten reports from 

 all of them through in time for publication for this meeting. These men have 

 worked splendidly and have co-operated, not only with the different chairmen, 

 but with the other members. Representing, as I do, the central committee, and 

 also on behalf of the Conservation Congress itself, I. want to say that we appre- 

 ciate very warmly what these gentlemen have done. I want particularly to 

 speak of the work done by Mr. E. T. Allen and Mr. E. A. Sterling, who have 

 really borne the brunt of this big task of working up these reports and getting 

 them ready for this congress. 



We will begin, without further discussion by the chair, by calling on Mr. 

 E. T. Allen to discuss the final subject of our meeting the question of publicity 

 in the promotion of practical forestry." 



Mr. Allen presented the following report: 



